Indonesia arrests 4 for bomb attack plot in Jakarta

Four people have been arrested in Indonesia on suspicion of plotting a major bomb attack in the capital, Jakarta.

Police said on Saturday that the four were planning an attack on Sunday on "a vital location in Central Jakarta," adding that bomb disposal teams managed to safely detonate a bomb on the outskirts of the capital.

Police discovered the three-kilogram bomb encased in a pressure cooker in a boarding house in Bekasi, where a female suspect was staying. Two others were arrested in a separate location in Jakarta, while the fourth, presumably the bomb-maker, was arrested in central Java island.

Officials said all the four were strongly believed to be linked to an Indonesian militant currently in Syria working with the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group. The man, identified as Bahrun Naim, is thought to have orchestrated a deadly terror attack in Jakarta in January. The attack, which targeted a Starbucks café, killed four people and was claimed by a branch of Daesh in Southeast Asia. The assault was the first of its kind by the branch.

The arrests were the latest in a string of similar security operations in the country.

Indonesia, a hotbed of terror attacks in the 2000s, has struggled to prevent a resurgence of militancy of those years.

The country also fears that a return of its nationals who have traveled to Syria and Iraq to operate within the ranks of Daesh could pose serious security threats. Hundreds of Indonesians are believed to have joined Daesh over the past few years.